I did read somewhere yesterday that you only get the gift card if you buy after 5 PM on Tuesday. Kinda weird, but I believe the GC deal is "while supplies last." I imagine they'll give out the cards with as many copies of SMG as they have to sell within the first week.

Go do a pre-order, and you should be cool. (Though I've already gone through GameSpot for mine. So I'm SOL on the gift card.)

Yet people still claim nothing good comes out for the Wii... interesting.

Edit:

Gamerankings.com gave Halo 3 a conglomerate score of 93%.

Mario galaxy? Sitting at 96.9%

First off..... Halo 3 has been out two months longer than galaxy. any conglomerate score is going to be skewed in Galaxy's favor because it doesn't have as many sources.

Secondly, Apples and Oranges. You can't compare a shooter to a family friendly action game like that. They're both spectacular games.... just not similar....

Didn't Microsoft though claim that Halo 3 was "the best game ever" and nothing would ever compare to it? It also would be the "best selling game of all time" despite the fact that it would have to sell at least 4 copies to every single XBOX 360 owner to beat the best selling game of all time, which lo and behold happens to be Super Mario Bros (at 42 million).

That's interesting (well, outside of Pokemon, I don't think it's fair to group all three titles together like that) how that's changed in only about a year's time, going by the one list published by, I think, Game Informer within that timeframe.

A lot of folks apparently aren't preordering, in case there's some kind of crazy shipping mishap. Many of them plan on just being able to walk in to EB Tuesday morning, and take one off the giant pile they will probably have. Hopefully it's the kind of thing where they have already received the shipment, and they're simply sitting on it until release day.

This looks like it will be the first real Mario game in 11 years. Sunshine was half-great/half-frustrating, NSMB was a nice throwback-remix, but this is the real deal. I am ****ing psyched.

A lot of folks apparently aren't preordering, in case there's some kind of crazy shipping mishap. Many of them plan on just being able to walk in to EB Tuesday morning, and take one off the giant pile they will probably have. Hopefully it's the kind of thing where they have already received the shipment, and they're simply sitting on it until release day.

This looks like it will be the first real Mario game in 11 years. Sunshine was half-great/half-frustrating, NSMB was a nice throwback-remix, but this is the real deal. I am ****ing psyched.

If a lot of people aren't preordering, then you won't find it in GS/EB. They don't buy games unless they are preordered.

I once got in an arguement with a GS employee when he couldn't accept that I would never preorder from their store. I basically told him "When you actually carry new stock in your stores, I'll buy new games from you." GS/EB is nothing more than a game only pawn shop.

A lot of folks apparently aren't preordering, in case there's some kind of crazy shipping mishap. Many of them plan on just being able to walk in to EB Tuesday morning, and take one off the giant pile they will probably have. Hopefully it's the kind of thing where they have already received the shipment, and they're simply sitting on it until release day.

This looks like it will be the first real Mario game in 11 years. Sunshine was half-great/half-frustrating, NSMB was a nice throwback-remix, but this is the real deal. I am ****ing psyched.

If a lot of people aren't preordering, then you won't find it in GS/EB. They don't buy games unless they are preordered.

I once got in an arguement with a GS employee when he couldn't accept that I would never preorder from their store. I basically told him "When you actually carry new stock in your stores, I'll buy new games from you." GS/EB is nothing more than a game only pawn shop.

I find plenty of new games at my local GS on the day they're released. Not the super popular ones, obviously, but I was still able to get The Orange Box, The Simpsons Game and Bioshock on the day of release without preordering.

Got this yesterday afternoon (don't ask how...), and holy crap, is it a blast. I'm also shocked at how well the Wii controls work. They've been known to be a hinderance in other games, but here they seem to work perfectly.

Hope you don't get motion-sick though, because there are some dizzying levels in here.

Got this yesterday afternoon (don't ask how...), and holy crap, is it a blast. I'm also shocked at how well the Wii controls work. They've been known to be a hinderance in other games, but here they seem to work perfectly.

Hope you don't get motion-sick though, because there are some dizzying levels in here.

Stopped by GameStop today to check and see if Assassin's Creed was in (having already picked this one up yesterday), and there was a line coiled around the bottom floor like a crazy chain of dominoes, all waiting for Galaxy. Wasn't too bad, except for all the pompous-douchebag Michigan Avenue crowd and their snotty rugrats.

Without having listened to it all, this has to be the best music in a Mario game since Super Mario World. The music in the first world is pure ****ing magic.

Kondo-san, please make the soundtrack available.

It's times like this I wish the Wii could output at least at 720p. The nicest-looking game on the system so far.

I need to pick this game up. I planned on getting it Monday, when it came out, but I've been sick since last Friday and haven't had the time. I preorded Galaxy a while back, and I'm hoping to get it either today or tomorrow. So far I've only heard good things about it.

Pretty generous with the 1-ups, though. I'm only 20 stars in, and I've already got over 70 lives. Either that, or I'm just SO AWESOME.

But holy frak, my head hurts. This is some disorienting ****. I had to turn it off after the first "Good Egg" star. It only gets worse. Stock up on Dramamine.

Has anyone else gotten through the bonus "Sling Shot Galaxy" yet? That is some sadistic, maddening stuff right there. I thought I was going to rip my hair out after the tenth time of attempting to slingshot myself to the next rock, missing the mark just slightly, and jettisoning off into space. Argh.

Did the slingshot galaxy earlier. If it helps, you can take out those mines with your starbits. That part where you have to sling Mario through the flames spinning opposite directions was pretty rough, but once you're past that you're home free.

This game looks really good, but I fear that this is really the start of a trend in which the only games to really take advantage of the Wii and it's controls will be the in-house big blockbuster titles, and all the third party games will be either crappy or non-existant....